Primaries in the Italian Democratic party have been a major innovation for the party and the country

Posted October 29th, 2009 by
The Italian Democratic party has a new national leader: Pierluigi Bersani, a former government minister under Romano Prodi. He was not nominated by the national assembly, nor appointed by the members. He was instead elected last Sunday by more than 2.8 million people that voted in a consultation open to the party’s supporters.
The party organised nearly 10,000 ballot boxes around the country and sympathisers (even 16 year olds and legal immigrants that do not have the right to vote in the national election) had a decisive say in the choice.
The constitution of the party provides that everyone who shares the party’s values and its manifesto can choose the national leader and the 20 regional leaders. While a first round of vote, restricted to party’s members, selects a shortlist of candidates, it is not necessary to have paid the annual membership to take part in the final election.
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Which institution is Cameron talking about?

Posted October 13th, 2009 by

At the Conservative Conference, in Manchester, David Cameron has used one of the most common argument to attack the European Union, the lack of democracy, but he has only showed his own ignorance.

Talking to the conference he siad: “People who think of themselves as progressives have fallen in love with an institution that no one elects, no one can remove, and that hasn’t signed off its accounts for over a decade”.

Which institution was he talking about? Maybe the directly elected European Parliament? Or was he talking about the European Commission, that has to receive the confidence of the EP and that  (remember about Mr. Santer) can be sacked by the Parliament itself?

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